DATUK Seri Subahan Kamal has only been three months in office, but his achievements in the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) are dynamic, as well as progressive.
He took over from Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah on April 28, quite reluctantly though, when nominations closed and he was unchallenged.
But since, he has not only brought down MHC's massive debts, but also managed to hire the best hockey mind in the world -- Australian Terry Walsh as Technical Director.
"When I took over from Tengku Abdullah, MHC had a debt of RM2.8 million and we have managed to reduce it to RM1.7 million with good team-work from all departments," said Subahan.
RM1 million in three months, and Subahan is confident he can solve the money issue soon.
MHC have also managed to rope in Qnet, an Asian direct selling company, who are also the official direct selling partners of with the Manchester City Football Club.
"Qnet have been silently supporting hockey since the days of Tengku Abdullah (2011) but have come in strongly with a pledge of RM1.5 million over five years to help facilitate the national team's participation as well as the organisation of various domestic and international tournaments," said Subahan.
The president also took responsibility over the failure of Malaysia in the World League Semi-finals.
"Even though the current office bearers were barely weeks into their job when the team left for Belgium, I take responsibility for their failure to qualify for the Olympics.
"Having said that, the MHC have started preparations to make sure we have a strong team to challenge, and qualify for the next Olympics in 2020 Tokyo," said Subahan.
To that effect, Walsh was hired over the weekend -- and the Australian started Monday on the run by organising a coaching seminar for 14 Malaysian coaches.
Walsh and the coaching committee will, in two weeks time, name the national chief coach as well as coaches for the various national teams, including the women's.
After chairing the Executive Board meeting on Saturday, Subahan said there were many other issues which has been tightened up since he took over, but he will only speak about them when he organises a 100-day in office function.
"I have a plan, and my team of office bearers have been performing to their personal KPI's. More information will be revealed when we host out 100-day in office function.
After naming Walsh during lunch time, at night, Subahan attended a Kelab Aman Happy Hockey fund-raising dinner in Kuala Lumpur, and there were many happy faces when he announced several incentives for the junior development programme for ages four to 18.
Barely 100 days on, Subahan and his team have managed to almost turn around the MHC, and now there must be positive changes on the pitch as Walsh said: "Malaysia can break into the top-10 and even the top-8 when certain things are aligned."
However, the Australian was frank and point blank when asked if Malaysia can win major tournaments like the Olympic and World Cup in the near future: "That, is out of sight."
